What began in 1991 as a nonprofit safe haven for MCs has become a global brand — and on a summer night in Brooklyn, Lyricist Lounge’s legacy collided with Raekwon’s mafioso rap classic.
On Saturday, August 9, Prospect Park welcomed with classic rap enthusiasts spanning the ‘80s, ‘90s, early 2000s to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon’s solo debut, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx — staple of mafioso rap, and widely regarded as one of hip-hop’s greatest albums. Hip-hop heads also gathered to celebrate the return of Lyricist Lounge, thanks to BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, New York City’s longest-running free outdoor performing arts festival.
The story of Lyricist Lounge is one of humble beginnings that grew into global brand recognition, one absorbed by a niche yet far-reaching audience that continues to expand as the eras go by. Last weekend, I spoke with founders, Danny Castro and Anthony Marshall, about how a real rap communal haven evolved from a nonprofit into a sustainable brand.
Castro and Marshall were still high school teenagers when they developed the Lyricist Lounge vision in 1991. Practitioners of hip-hop elements themselves, namely, b-boying and rap, they invested nothing but their love for the culture into the initiative. Inexperience came with their youth; they were new to the worlds of the music business, event management, and marketing. Still, the concept was simple: build a community for practitioners of rap and while welcoming lovers of the craft. There was no intention for the venture to be profitable.
“We grew up as dancers, and from there it evolved,” said Marshall. “A lot of the dancers ended up starting to rhyme themselves because they were tired of being behind the actual person rhyming. It was just part of the evolution of the culture — dancers becoming artists as well. Since we knew a lot of them, we would invite them to come to the open mic sessions.”
The Lyricist Lounge consisted of open mic sessions for anyone who was a practitioner of hip-hop’s rap element. Big names weren’t required — this wasn’t their scene. At the time, hip-hop was still emerging as a business, and for these NYC teenagers, there was no dedicated indoor space to host such a showcase. They were too young to get into venues like the Village Gate, S.O.B.’s, or Latin Quarters. Out of luck, they managed to secure a space, for free.
Their mentor, Charles Thompson, offered them the use of a vacant apartment he owned at 45 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, which was transformed into a studio space. This solved not only their challenge of finding a venue, but also the issue of cost. Each month, Castro and Marshall invited a plethora of burgeoning artists they knew to perform at open mic sessions there, with Brooklyn’s Wordsworth among the first to grace the mic—and who, fittingly, also performed at the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! event on Saturday, solidifying the Lyricist Lounge experience.
This was the advent of hip-hop’s underground scene, where aspiring artists were afforded the opportunity to showcase their skills in front of enthusiasts and unzipped critics. It grew into a local sensation that drew in every facet of the hip-hop spectrum— from A&Rs looking for the next rap star, to record deal hopefuls, or passionate wordsmiths looking to test their mettle. There were no limits on who could step into the cipher. Each month, between 20 and 40 people packed the Lyricist Lounge showcases at 45 Orchard Street, including a young Yasiin Bey (then Mos Def) and Talib Kweli and rap legends like Doug E. Fresh. It was the purest form of a hip-hop community.
“The main idea was to have it as a nonprofit organization,” said Castro. “That’s what we wanted — to create a nonprofit where artists could come and hone their skills. From there, we planned to help them land record deals. That was the plan.”
After two years of hosting at 45 Orchard, Castro and Marshall knew it was time to evolve beyond the free open-mic format. The venue was packed to capacity every month, and it was evident the movement was gaining momentum. They not only needed a new space, but also a more structured approach. While they were not privy on a formal level concerning marketing tactics, they understood key elements of New York City nightlife—from promotion and the role of a host to setting entry fees. The marketing ploy of the open mic experience was a given.
The first venue to host a Lyricist Lounge showcase was The Village Gate, secured after Castro and Marshall, still in their teens, successfully pitched the idea to the owners, even enlisting their Italian drummer homeboy to cosplay as an attorney. They charged just a $5 entry fee. Attendance was slow at first, but as more renowned MCs began taking the stage, whether local sensations or established hitmakers, the Lyricist Lounge movement steadily blossomed.
“The majority of people at our shows got in for free,” said Marshall. “Probably 70% of the crowd wasn’t paying. We had people performing, and since we weren’t paying them, they had friends they wanted to bring in. We felt obligated to give them five or ten free spots. Before you knew it, most of the people in the club were getting in for free.”
“On top of that, we had a lot of friends ourselves. And remember — it was a new concept: a showcase of unsigned artists no one had ever heard before. So for us, we were like, ‘Who’s really gonna want to pay for that?”
The Lyricist Lounge became a true pioneer of the underground hip-hop community— a hip-hop pantheon that spotlighted some of the genre’s most legendary artists before their prime time, including Foxy Brown, Mobb Deep, The Notorious B.I.G, Rah Digga, Eminem, and more. Artists such as Mos Def (one of the earliest Lyricist Lounge MC hosts), Common, Guru, KRS-One, Fat Joe, Smif-N-Wessun, Q-Tip went on to serve as headlining hosts of the brand’s signature open mic showcases. By 1998, the movement had evolved once again — this time, onto wax.
They released their first album, Lyricist Lounge, Volume One in partnership with Rawkus Records—a pure rendition of their live showcases. The double-disc work, hosted by De La Soul and Kool Keith, featured MCs including Wordsworth, Mos Def, Bahamadia, Punchline, Talib Kweli, Ras Kass, Thirstin’ Howl the 3rd, Rah Digga, Shabaam Sahdeeq, and more. The production was equally stacked, with contributions from 88-Keys, Hi-Tek, J Period, Ge-ology, DJ Scratch and more. The single “C.I.A. (Criminals In Action)” featuring KRS-One, The Last Emperor, and Zack De La Rocha, reached number 15 on Billboard’s Bubbling Hot Under 100 chart and became favored among movement enthusiasts.
They embarked on their first tour in 1998, hitting major cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Miami, San Francisco, and Boston, followed by two additional tours. It was during these tours, alongside the release of Volume One, that Castro and Marshall began to see modest net profits. But their real breakthrough came when they secured a six-figure deal with Viacom for a comedy-rap sketch series on MTV, The Lyricist Lounge Show.
“We were doing it for more than just the money,” said Marshall. “We started out as a nonprofit, so we always knew there was a bigger reason behind what we were doing. Once we solidified ourselves as a brand, we were able to take the value we’d built over seven or eight years and turn it into touring — then into an album, then into the MTV show — and ultimately into longevity.”
“We’re doing the tour,” Castro recalled. “We sold the show to MTV. We’re now developing it, literally putting it together in L.A. We have a meeting with Rawkus, and they’re like, ‘This is the best opportunity for you to have a second album, right? You’re gonna have a TV show being broadcast to millions of people—so it would make sense to have another album.’ We’re like, ‘Yeah, but we’re a little too busy. There’s a lot going on.’ And they said, ‘You may want to think about it. What if we helped you guys?’
The Lyricist Lounge Show was broadcast to millions, the first of its kind to transform comedic raps into live-action sketches performed by rappers such as Wordsworth and Babee Power, alongside comedians including a then-early-career Tracee Ellis Ross and Heather McDonald. The show premiered in 2000 and ran for two seasons, concluding in 2001.
They released Lyricist Lounge 2, at the suggestion of Rawkus Records, as part of a strategic marketing tactic to build anticipation for the upcoming MTV show. The album outperformed Volume 1 commercially, debuting number at number seven on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The Mos Def and Ghostface Killah collaboration “Ms Fat Booty 2” reached number 15 on Top Rap Songs chart, while “Get Up” featuring Cocoa Brovaz (Tek and Steele of Smif-N-Wessun), climbed to number nine. Still, some fans were not fond of the release, citing the omission of the open-mic format that had defined the first volume, and movement itself.
According to Castro, Lyricist Lounge 2 was designed not only to help market the then-forthcoming television show, but to spotlight production and showcase some of the era’s most formidable producers including J Dilla, Scott Storch, Alchemist, Madlib, Erick Sermon, Hi-Tek, Ayatollah, Rockwilder, and more—a legit all star line-up. The Notorious B.I.G’s 1993 performance at Lyricist Lounge is stationed as the first track on the album.
“‘Volume Two’ was really about showcasing producers,” said Castro. “We wanted to present them front and center, and if you listen to Volume Two, we had a lot of legendary names — Scott Storch, J Dilla, Erick Sermon, Hi-Tek, Rockwilder, and more.”
“A lot of people expected it to have the same super-underground feel as ‘Lyricist Lounge Volume One.’ But as we grew — and as the whole hip-hop industry grew — we wanted to show some evolution in what we were doing. That’s why we did more collaborations.”
Lyricist Lounge’s connections in hip-hop knows no bounds. Over the years, they’ve maintained a strong connection with the Wu-Tang Clan, with several members headlining their events. Saturday’s Prospect Park show, presented as part of BRIC Celebrates Brooklyn!, marked their second time featuring Raekwon as a headliner. The Wu-Tang emcee not only ran through tracks from his classic debut album, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, brought out Busta Rhymes and Smif-N-Wessun, and was honored with a citation from Senator Zellnor Myrie for his contributions to Black music culture.
“We had Ol’ Dirty come with Sunz of Man and introduce them to everyone over at the New Music Seminar back in ’94,” Castro recalled. “ODB used to come to the Lounge. RZA came through back in ’93, when we did a show with Biggie Smalls. They would come and hang out back in the day, but they didn’t really get on the mic.”
“Eventually, we started doing shows with them — we did Ghostface here like 13 years ago, and Raekwon around the same time,” he continued. “It’s funny — this year, fast forward, we did a show with Ghost at the Apollo. And Raekwon came through here again. We also did shows with GZA in Staten Island, over at South Beach, and with SummerStage.”
Lyricist Lounge has climbed at least six tiers of brand growth, evolving from an idea, to a nonprofit, to a touring platform, to a getting on wax, landing a six-figure television deal, and now as a mounting hip-hop pantheon who hosts real rap charades all over the world. It has been honored on some of the most prestigious stages, from the Kennedy Center and The Apollo Theater. Now, Lyricist Lounge stands as a hip-hop legacy brand, one that encompasses a record label and events that nurture the underlooked growing world of rap enthusiasts.